Christopher Boone Seems Utterly Unsuited to Narrating but Becomes a Rather Wonderful Narrator.
In The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon, Christopher seems incapable of telling the story but becomes a rather wonderful narrator. From the first few pages it is clear that Christopher struggles in reading others emotions. In addition to this, without the help of Siobhan, Christopher’s grammar would have made the narration of this novel disjointed and very repetitive. Although this occurs at times, it does not take away from the narration but rather adds to the character and quirkiness of Christopher.
Christopher is unable to understand the emotions that words evoke in a reader. Early in the novel, the reader is shown the faces that Christopher should be able to identify, but he is only capable of recognizing happy and sad. As the ability to read emotions from someone’s face is much easier then evoking an emotional response using language, you would expect a person such as Christopher to find it particularly hard to narrate a story so from the very beginning of this novel. This leaves you wondering whether or not Christopher will be suited to narrating such a complex story. His inability to read emotions is expected to affect his narrative skills, but in fact, it does not.
As well as his writing lacking a deep emotional side, Christopher’s grammar is often incorrect making the narration seem somewhat disjointed. Christopher writes about Mrs. Shears staying at there house in a long sentence repeating the word ‘and’ multiple times. ‘…and she arranged the jars…and she put knives and forks and spoons…’ The use of a comma would have eliminated such a long sentence. This simple grammar rule, including repeating a word many times in one sentence, is one learnt usually from a young age. This clearly shows Christopher’s struggle to grasp even the simplest rules. With the help of Siobhan, Christopher’s grammar was corrected in many places, preventing what would have resulted in confusion in the reader.
Siobhan played a vital role in
Christopher is unable to understand the emotions that words evoke in a reader. Early in the novel, the reader is shown the faces that Christopher should be able to identify, but he is only capable of recognizing happy and sad. As the ability to read emotions from someone’s face is much easier then evoking an emotional response using language, you would expect a person such as Christopher to find it particularly hard to narrate a story so from the very beginning of this novel. This leaves you wondering whether or not Christopher will be suited to narrating such a complex story. His inability to read emotions is expected to affect his narrative skills, but in fact, it does not.
As well as his writing lacking a deep emotional side, Christopher’s grammar is often incorrect making the narration seem somewhat disjointed. Christopher writes about Mrs. Shears staying at there house in a long sentence repeating the word ‘and’ multiple times. ‘…and she arranged the jars…and she put knives and forks and spoons…’ The use of a comma would have eliminated such a long sentence. This simple grammar rule, including repeating a word many times in one sentence, is one learnt usually from a young age. This clearly shows Christopher’s struggle to grasp even the simplest rules. With the help of Siobhan, Christopher’s grammar was corrected in many places, preventing what would have resulted in confusion in the reader.
Siobhan played a vital role in